Peter Kennaugh has been replaced in the Team Sky team for the Giro d'Italia by Chris Sutton. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Peter Kennaugh has withdrawn from Team Sky's squad for the Giro d'Italia just days before Friday's opening stage in Belfast. The Manxman has been forced to pull out of the nine-man squad following the illness which also caused him to withdraw from the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race on 27 April.

Chris Sutton has been named as his replacement in the squad, but the loss of Kennaugh is a fresh blow to Team Sky's plans for the first Grand Tour of the season.

With Chris Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins both absent, Sky are without an obvious leader for the Giro as Richie Porte has already been forced to pull out with fitness concerns of his own.

It had appeared that Kennaugh would instead be given the chance to contend in the general classification but those hopes have now been dashed. "The Giro is one of my favourite races and I would have loved to have ridden it again," Kennaugh said. "A lot of my friends and family were planning on coming over to Ireland for the start, and I was looking forward to racing back in Italy. This bug laid me low, though, and it was a tough one to shake off.

"I'm feeling better now but I'm behind on where I wanted to be and the decision to withdraw was taken after I'd chatted with the doctors and coaches. Now I'm back in training and the plan is to be competing again in a few weeks' time."

Sky's remaining Giro squad includes the talented Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen as well as Ben Swift, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman who has turned in some impressive performances this season, and the Irishman Philip Deignan, a stage winner on the 2009 Vuelta a España.

Sutton has also been a stage winner in Spain, back in 2011, and Sky's head of performance operations, Rod Ellingworth, said he could help his team-mates contend for the sprint finishes.

He said: "CJ will give us another option when it comes to the sprint finishes. He's won Grand Tour stages in the past, and even if he's not battling for the victories himself, he's a good lead-out man for the likes of Ben Swift and Edvald Boasson Hagen and can play a valuable role for the team."